Map of the Day

by AS on February 16, 2017 at 2:00pm

It?s a small world after all ? in fact it has just got a whole lot smaller. Amazingly, this is the world?s smallest map of the erm, world, and just to put its size in to perspective, an astonishing 1,000 of these will fit on a grain of salt. It?s the work of IBM. Their scientists have created a complete 3D map of the world measuring only 22 by 11 micrometers. The nano-world was ?written? on a polymer. Remember, this is 3D, so 1,000 meters of altitude corresponds to roughly eight nanometers. It is composed of 500,000 pixels, each measuring 20 nm2 and was created in only 2 minutes and 23 seconds. Published in Science and Advanced Materials, IBM scientists have demonstrated a new technique that uses a nanoscale tip to create 2D and 3D patterns and structures as small as 15 nanometers at greatly reduced cost and complexity. This patterning technique opens new prospects for fabricating nanosized electronics and objects in fields ranging from future chip technology to opto-electronics to medicine and life sciences.